A Washington, DC woman had no idea that the vase she bought at a thrift store for $3.99 was a Mayan artifact from over 1,000 years ago. Five years later, the lost pottery is set to be returned to its native Mexico.
Anna Lee Dozier said when she found the vase at 2A Thrift Store in her Clinton, Maryland, neighborhood, she noticed it was “definitely from Mexico” and “looked old.”
“I travel to Mexico a lot for work and this item caught my eye because it was different from what was on the shelves,” Dozier said. What actually happened.
“It looked old… but it felt like a tourist thing from 20 or 30 years ago – something someone brought back from a trip somewhere.”
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“It looked old,” Dozier said when he bought the Mayan artifact in Clinton, Maryland. (Distributed via Reuters)
Dozier, who works for the human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said he was on a business trip in January to Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology when something clicked.
“As I was walking around, I realized some of the things I was looking at were very similar to what I have at home,” she said.
Dozier asked museum officials what to do if she thought she had cultural artifacts, and they told her to contact the Mexican Embassy when she returned to the U.S., Dozier told the radio station.
Mexican Embassy spokesman Sergio Aguirre Gamboa told the outlet that procedures had been established in 2021 to prepare for just such a situation “to counter the sale of Mexican archaeological material and to foster dialogue with museums and private institutions for the return of our heritage.”
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Photographs and information about the vase were sent to experts at Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology (pictured), who determined that the vase is of Mayan origin, dating to between 200 and 800 AD. (Google Maps)
The embassy collected photographs and information about the vase from Dozier and sent it for identification to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, where experts determined the vase is a Classic Maya artifact made between 200 and 800 A.D. in the area now known as southeastern Mexico.
“They contacted me in April and said, yes, it was real and it was very, very old,” Dozier said.[The email] I just said, “Congratulations, it’s real, and we want it back, in a really good way. That was my intention.”
Dozier packed the vases into a food delivery box lined with newspaper and drove to the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington on Tuesday.
“The whole 30-minute drive, I just prayed. [there would be] “No collisions, no accidents, just getting to our destination safely,” she said.
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Anna Lee Dozier said she found the artifact at 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland. (Google Maps)
There she returned the ship in a ceremony with the Mexican ambassador.
“When you have strong roots, you know them and you respect them,” Ambassador Moctezuma Barragán said, according to WUSA9. “She recognizes that an entire country, an entire culture, values that, and we’re very grateful to her.”
Dozier said he never considered selling or auctioning the priceless pieces, even if that was an option.
“It’s worth more than anything money can buy, so for me, it was no question. If it’s something special, it should go back where it belongs,” she said. What actually happened“I feel so lucky to have found this and have it in my home. It’s been that way for a few years, but now it’s getting back to where it should be.”
“I’m happy to be part of this statue’s return story and I want it back where it belongs,” Dozier told WUSA 9. “But I also want it out of my house. I have three sons and they scare me to death. It’s gone now, but the thought that in 2000 years I might be the one to take it down scares me!”
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The Mexican government welcomed 20 cultural artifacts from the United States this week, including centuries-old plates, bowls and carved statues of Aztec, Totonac and Teotihuacan origin. Reuters reported..
Gamboa told local media that Mexico’s 2021 efforts have led to the return of about 13,500 artifacts of archaeological and historical importance from abroad in recent years.
